| Date | 20th, Jan 2022 |
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Nano-bubble evACE2, which could be delivered as nasal spray, fights new COVID variants as well as or better than the original strain of the SARS-CoV-2 virus.
Nano-bubble evACE2 fights new variants as well as or better than original strain of virus.
Drug can be delivered as nasal sprayActs as decoy to capture virus before it enters cell‘It’s urgent to identify novel therapeutics’EvACE2 arises naturally in COVID-19 patients as part of the anti-viral responseScientists at Northwestern Medicine and The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center have identified natural nano-bubbles containing the ACE2 protein (evACE2) in the blood of COVID-19 patients and discovered these nano-sized particles can block infection from broad strains of SARS-CoV-2 virus in preclinical studies.
The evACE2 acts as a decoy in the body and can serve as a therapeutic to be developed for prevention and treatment for current and future strains of SARS-CoV-2 and future coronaviruses, the scientists said. Once developed as a therapeutic product, it can benefit human beings as a biological treatment with minimal toxicities.
The study is the first to show evACE2 proteins are capable of fighting the new SARS-CoV-2 variants with an equal or better efficacy than blocking the original strain. The researchers found these evACE2 nano bubbles exist in human blood as a natural anti-viral response. The more severe the disease, the higher the levels of evACE2 detected in the patient’s blood.
The paper will be published in Nature Communications today (January 20, 2022).
